Quote:
Originally Posted by GrifBot
Well, Apollo 11 was a complete success. Philae however, was not.
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Back that horse up cowboy.
If Philae managed to use the last bit of its battery power to pick up and examine a sample of the comet material, it DID achieve all of its primary mission objectives, according to an ESA rep I heard on the radio (during the last few hours of the battery's life(lives)).
And, Apollo 11 had a few glitches ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by EricH
Was Philae's landing/surface operations more exciting than Apollo 11?
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I was bit too young (11?) to fully appreciate the size and complexity of the NASA programs that culminated in the Apollo missions. I do remember *expecting* those programs to be successful, because good people were carrying them out (I was too young to fully appreciate when earlier unmanned and manned missions failed).
Similarly, for whatever reasons, I usually expect our unmanned Mars missions to be (generally) successful.
OBTW - I don't remember hearing anything at the time of Apollo 11 about the nearly simultaneous Soviet unmanned mission to the moon. A mission that attempted to use a robot to retrieve soil samples ... The lack of coverage of and/or enthusiasm for that mission was a sign of the times.
For whatever reason, right now I think I'm more excited about the Philae mission than I was about the moon landings. Maybe it's because I think that comets and asteroids can be occupied, moved, and mined? The moon can be occupied and mined, but my wild guess is that comets and asteroids are going to turn a profit, or otherwise be significantly useful, first.
OBTW - In the foreseeable future, I have a hunch that comets and asteroids are going to be way more terrifying and obtainable than any nuclear device ever was. Discuss ...
When you ask which event was more exciting, I gather that you are asking about which event excited/inspired a 3rd-party observer more. However, my first reaction to your question was to put myself into the shoes of the Apollo 11 astronauts, and to then assume that having to fly the lander to a new (fewer boulders) landing spot while your onboard computer continuously crashed, was probably pretty exciting, even for a well-trained, cool-as-a-cucumber test pilot / astronaut. Philae's landing didn't involve an excitable pilot in the same sense. It was, and is, cool and interesting, but not "exciting" in the same way.
Bottom Line: I sent a big +1 to all of my European WhatsApp buddies when Philae landed, and I remain amazed at the past and present technical prowess of the NASA team (and their commercial/military/overseas partners).
Blake